Former General Is Undead Knight - Act 4-31 - Rose of Subkingdom⑦

The field of flowers continued on endlessly.

Simon stood inside the seemingly never-ending flower garden.

「What…in the world is this?!」

After he shouted, he broke into a run, stopped looking around his surroundings again.

The 『Rose of Subkingdom』 stood a little bit away from Simon.

She shut her eyes while playing her guqin.

Oddly, the melody lingered in his head.

It was as if the melody echoed in the entire sky of the myriad of colors.

「A-am I trapped in an illusion? Impossible! Such a thing is impossible…!」

Finally, the 『Rose of Subkingdom』 opened her eyes, casting a merciful look at Simon.

Her face looked like someone who saw a dying person.

At that moment, Simon realized that the 『Rose of Subkingdom』 already considered their fight finished.

「Your opponent is the highest-ranking spirit, after all. The king of subkingdom bestowed the Yutelbe tribe the honor of playing the guqin in their presence by inviting them into their garden, and now, I’m playing it with you.」

「H-highest-ranking spirit?!」

Highest-ranking spirit was the king of the spirit world. There were a total of thirteen realms in the spirit world, each with their own king.

To this date, there were only three recorded instances of the summoning of a highest-ranking spirit in the whole Worimia continent.

The first happened during a mythical era more than a thousand years ago. There was no description about the summoned spirit king aside from the fact that they hailed from the beast realm.

The second time happened during the chaotic era of the Eight Countries Unification War. Their summoning tipped the scale of power during that time.

「I-impossible! Even the worst alchemist, Guiref, had to sacrifice thirty thousand humans to call on that kind of spirit for a brief time! And you’re telling me that the spirit king will come just to hear your guqin?!」

「I’ve never said I “called” them. I said that I “invited” them—not that I care whether you understand or not.」

「Impossible! This must be a cheap illusion of yours! Yes, a cheap illusion!」

The flower garden swelled before Simon.

The figure of the 『Rose of Subkingdom』 then vanished within the giant’s shadow.

The mountain of multi-colored flowers then started to form a mouth, and eyes appeared above them.

The moment Simon saw that, he understood.

He knew that the one who stood before him was the highest-ranking spirit, the ruler of the subkingdom, Oberon.

「AS IF SUCH A THING IS POSSIBLE!!」

Simon leaped toward Oberon as he raised a war cry.

And yet, his body was slapped back as if it was repelled by something.

Simon himself had no idea what was happening.

But he knew that the flowers in the garden had started to release a sweet smell.

「Such a thing is…!」

Simon looked up dumbfoundedly at Oberon, a giant more than one hundred heins (meters) tall.

They were an existence that transcended the likes of humans.

Oberon then turned their back on Simon.

That simple movement alone was enough to cause a tremor throughout the entire garden.

It also showed that Oberon had zero interest in Simon.

「Ah…」

It was no wonder.

In the end, Oberon had only invited the 『Rose of Subkingdom』 to hear her guqin.

It was only natural for them to have no interest in Simon, who got dragged along with her.

Spirits couldn’t comprehend humans.

From their thought processes to their world’s laws, everything was completely different.

That was why humans could only make pacts with spirits and couldn’t make the spirits accompany them.

In hindsight, Oberon wouldn’t do anything to Simon.

Thus, Simon heaved a sigh of relief.

But if he could simply return to reality safe and sound, the 『Rose of Subkingdom』 wouldn’t have even dragged him along to begin with.

Simon crouched in the flower garden and realized that there was something wrong with his entire body.

He had no idea since when this symptom had started.

But he had lost all of his senses.

And he had enough of the smell of the flower.

Without thinking anything, Simon tried to prop his body to escape from the smell.

But his body didn’t move; it refused to move.

Countless tiny sprouts grew from his entire body.

「…Ah.」

Despite the shock, he could barely voice his surprise; his throat had already been covered with the sprout too.

The sprout grew rapidly and soon turned into a bud.

Simon’s mana was sucked rapidly by the sprout as nourishment to grow.

「…Ah.」

Impossible.

Simon was desperate.

But then, his body refused to move, and his mind was also being eroded rapidly.

Colorful flowers were blooming all over Simon’s body.

And then, he completely lost his senses.

Amidst his blurry consciousness, he knew that he had started laughing like a madman.

It was a nightmare.

‘Oh no, vanishing, I’m starting to vanish…!’

Simon felt like his mind was covered by some sort of mist.

‘Vanishing, I’m vanishiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.’

His ego was swallowed by the flower.

‘I still have a mission. I still have…a mission. Have a mission, I, I…’

―That was the last thing that Simon thought before his consciousness vanished.

The 『Rose of Subkingdom』 stood alone inside the underground passage with her hands on her guqin.

The presence of the king of subkingdom and Alraune, whom she had summoned first, had already vanished too.

Before her was the figure of Simon, whose body had turned reddish brown.

Rather than a corpse, it was more like a lump of sap.

The body of skinny Simon became even smaller.

Though his corpse had barely maintained a human figure, it couldn’t be seen as a human corpse either.

「…If possible, I didn’t want to use this method, but I guess I really had no choice.」

After politely placing her guqin on the ground, she sat on the floor of the underground passage, leaning on the wall as she touched her head.

It wasn’t a technique to be used so carelessly since it consumed a lot of mana.

She touched her throat, trying her best to prop herself on her own feet.

「If that man still managed to escape even after this, then all our efforts thus far would have been for naught.」

”

”

She then started walking slowly.

===